Method of making lashed doll eyes



June 21, 1966 H. BRUDNEY METHOD OF MAKING LASHED DOLL EYES Filed April23, 1962 A as INVENTOR. Hm y B UDNEy United States Patent 3,2565% METHQD6F MAKHNG LASHED DULL EYES Harry Erudney, New York, N.Y., assignor, byrnesne assignments, to .iacoby-Eender, fine, Woodside, Nfliifl, acorporation of New York Filed Apr. 23, 1962, Ser. No. 18%338 4 Claims.(Cl. 29-450) This invention relates to a method of making a lashed dollseye.

By a lashed dolls eye I refer to a dolls eyeball having an artificiallash which is fabricated from a great number of preformed lash strandsthat are anchored to the eyeball.

More particularly my present invention relates to an improvement in alashed dolls eye of the type which is illustrated and described inGrubman Patent No. 1,569,480 dated Jan. 12, 1926 and Grubman Patent No.1,782,818 dated Nov. 25, 1930. In general such a lashed dolls eyeconstitutes a hollow eyeball which preferably is made of an inherentlyresilient material, e.g., a synthetic plastic, and which is providedwith a preformed slit into which a great many doubled eyelash strandsare forced so that the doubled strands are held within the slit,preferably by virtue of the constrictive action of the slit andoptionally by the further addition of cement or the like, e.g., anadhesive.

A lashed dolls eye of the foregoing type is characterized by anunusually bushy appearance or, phrased differently, an unusually thickappearance, which is quite unnatural. The reason for such appearancearises from the method of insertion and holding of the lashes. Thelashes are highly flexible and unmanageable due to their small diameter.Therefore when they are doubled and pushed into the preformed slit thereis a tendency for them to become disarranged. To avoid this tendency andto maintain order in the arrangement of the lashes a great many lashstrands, e.g. hundreds, typically from about one hundred and fifty toabout five hundred are used. The lash strands then lie adjacent to oneanother and thereby maintain a nice parallel relationship. However anecessary concomitant of such large numbers of strands at the slit isthe presence of a large number of distal lash strand ends. It will beobvious that the number of lash strand ends is not equal to the numberof lash strands but is twice this number since each of the lash strands'is doubled before being thrust into the slit. Accordingly a lasheddolls eye of the above described Grubman type is inherently thick andbushy and therefore has a highly artificial appearance. Indeed due tothe separation of the doubled ends of each folded lash strand the lashas a whole is abnormally thick so that it does not resemble a humaneyelash.

It would be highly desirable to substantially reduce the number of lashstrand ends so as to more closely approximate the appearance of anatural eyelash and for this purpose various alternate arangements andmethods of manufacture have been proposed.

Some manufacturers, particularly in Europe, have secured one eyelashstrand at a time to an eyeball and in this manner could, of course, useas few strands as were desired, accurately determine the mounting ofeach strand and accordingly obtain a nice ordering of the relativearrangement between the strands. However this method and the resultinglashed dolls eye was not susceptible to nor compatible with Americanmass production processes entailing as it did an unrealistically largeamount of hand labor which was suitable for localities where manuallabor was plentiful and inexpensive but was entirely inappropriate forcountries like the United States where labor is skilled and costly.Therefore to change from the rapid, cheap and more or less satisfactoryGrubman methodto individual hand setting of lash strands would increasethe cost of a dolls eye out of all proportion to the cost of othercomponents and moreover would so greatly slow down production thatnormal demands could not be met.

Another proposed method and what might seem to he obviously the best,simplest and easiest one was merely to reduce the number of eyelashstrands applied by the Grubman method. Even a slight reduction of thenumber of strands would be of obvious assistance and a substantialreduction, e.g. halving, would permit the strands to be arranged in asingle file relationship rather than the separated double filerelationship characteristic of the Grubman lashes. However it wasobserved that as the number of strands was reduced below the numberrequired to completely fill, i.e., cram or pack, the slit the desiredparallel relationship of the strands quickly was lost and the strandsexhibited a marked tendency to assume random angles, to group in randombunches and to cross one another. Of course any of these defects madethe lash extremely unsightly and therefore commercially unacceptable sothat this modification could not be used.

Still another proposed method was to band the lashes before they wereinserted by the Grubman method. Pursuant to the banding process fewerlashes were doubled and inserted into a slit but these lashes were heldin orderly arrangement by transverse bands to which the lashes weresecured as by adhesive. The banding arrangement tended to preventdisorderly bunching, crossing and aparallelism of the lash strands,although not completely; however it introduced additional handling,caused more wastage of strand material and substantially complicated themachinery that had to be employed. As a result this last modificationhas never come into extensive use.

It is an object of my invention to provide a method of making a lasheddolls eye which retains the many advantages of the Grubman method, towit, simple manufacturing machinery, high rate of production andinexpensive end product, but which is not subject to any of thedisadvantages thereof and specifically which does not provide a bushylash.

It is another object of my invention to provide a method of making alashed dolls eye wherein although folded strands are attached to an eyeby the Grubman method the completed lash is far sparser than aconventional Grubman lash but still constitutes individual strands whichare parallel to one another and are not bunched, i.e., are uniformlyspaced.

It is another object of my invention to provide a method which producesa comparatively sparsely lashed eye of the character described which isattractive in appearance and can be made inexpensively and rapidly bymass production methods.

It is another object of my invention to provide a method which producesa comparatively sparsely lashed eye of the character described which canbe made by machine with a high degree of uniformity.

It is another object of the present invention to provide a method of thecharacter described which can be carried out at a low cost.

Other objects of my invention in part will be obvious and in part willbe pointed out hereinafter.

My invention accordingly consists in the series of steps which will beexemplified in the method hereinafter described and of which the scopeof application will be indicated in the appended claims.

In the accompanying drawings in which I have shown the steps involved inone of the various possible embodiments of my invention,

FIG. 1 is a vertical sectional view through a lashing machine forcarrying out the method of the present in-.

vention;

FIG. 2 is an enlarged view of the lash cutting and lash folding andinserting station of said machine, the same being illustrated at the endof a lash feeding movement;

FIG. 3 is a view similar to FIG. 2, but illustrating the station as itappears during a lash folding and inserting openation;

FIG. 4 is a view similar to FIG. 2, but showing the station as itappears during a cementing operation;

FIG. 5 is a top plan view of said station; and

FIG. 6 is a perspective view of a dolls eye having a finished trimmedlash and made by the method of my invention.

In general the method of my invention is achieved by what may now seemto be an extremely simple modification of the aforesaid Grubman methodbut which has escaped the attention of workers in the dolls eye artsince the 1920s. In the Grubman patents a great many transversely spreadlash strands are transversely fed above and beyond (over) theirelongated site (a preformed slit) of doubling and inserting, theoverfeed being by an amount which is in excess of the length of a reachof a trimmed doubled lash strand from its bight (fold) to its tip.Moreover the strands are cut off from their source of supply at adistance from the site of the doubling and inserting which distancelikewise is in excess of the length of a reach of a trimmed doubled lashstrand from its bight to its tip. Then after doubling and insertion thelash strands are trimmed to some certain length as may be desired. Intheir trimmed condition the doubled lash strands have a predeterminedlength from their bights to their tips (distal ends). Hence the totallongitudinal feeding movement of a transversely spread group of lashstrands is in excess of twice the predetermined length of the trimmedlash strands from their bights to their tip.

The modification which I have made of the Grubman method simply consistsin shortening the feed of a group of lash strands past (over or beyond)the site of doubling and inserting. Pursuant to my invention the amountof overfeed is less than the predetermined trimmed length of the lashstrands from their bights to their tips. I still retain a degree ofoverfeed but this is in the order of the length along the lash from thebight to just shortly beyond the external surface of the eyeball, suchdistance typically being in the order of about three thirtyseconds of aninch and being approximately enough for, and very little, if any morethan, the overfeed required to permit the lash strands to be folded andthe folded portions to be inserted in the preformed slit in the dollseyeball. Thereby it will be appreciated that the inserted lash strandswill effectively have only a single reach of each strand projecting forany appreciable distance beyond the dolls eyeball. Thus where in theprevious construction because of the large amount of overfeed eachstrand had two reaches appreciably projecting beyond the exteriorsurface of the dolls eyeball, by following the method of my presentinvention the two reaches of the folded strand will be of unequal lengthso that one will terminate close to the dolls eyeball and the other willterminate remote from the dolls eyeball.

From the foregoing the article produced by my invention will be amplyclear and will seem to consist of a dolls eye having a great many foldedlash strands clamped adjacent their bights in a preformed slit in theeye with the bights giving unequal reaches so that one reach terminatesin proximity to the eyeball whereas the other reach terminates at anormal trimmed length away from the eyeball. With such an arrangement Isecure the large number of lash strands within the slit that is properto obtain an orderly arrangement of the strands, 1.e., uniform spacingand parallel relationship, but I have, in effect, cut in half the numberof substantially protruding reaches of the lash strands which are theonly portions that the public notices. Such an eyelash is of course farsparser than a Grubman doubled lash and considerably more realistic inappearance and this highly improved result is obtained Withoutsacrificing in any respect whatsoever etliciency in speed or operationor cost of end product; indeed the product cost is somewhat reducedbecause the length of lash feed is shortened.

Referring now in detail to the drawings, the reference numeral 10denotes in schematic form a machine adapted to carry out the method ofmy present invention.

Said machine includes a reel 12 which is rotatably supported in anysuitable fashion and has wound about it a large number of long lengthsof lash strands 14 of any suitable material. Because a glossy appearanceis desirable and because lash strands can be inexpensively procuredwhere they are made from modern-day synthetic plastics, the lash strands14 desirably are so constituted, that is to say they are manufactured ofa synthetic plastic. One such plastic the appearance of which is ratherpleasant is nylon (a polyamide resin). As indicated previously a greatnumber of lash strands is used, these all, for example, being wound upon a single reel 12. The number of lash strands employed will dependupon the size of the eyeball, the length of the preformed slit and thefineness (denier) of the lash strands; and in general enough lashstrands will be used so that when they are folded and inserted in amanner which hereinafter will be described in detail the lash strandswill be crammed in the slot to such a degree that they will be parallelto one another at their points of securement to the dolls eyeball. InFIG. 5 it will be apparent that enough strands are used so that they aredensely packed, that is to say touching upon one another, thus assuringthe presence of sufficient strands to completely fill the slit in thedolls eye into which they will be inserted. The number of lash strandsrequired to pack the slit may range from about one hundred and fifty tofive hundred and many more. The strand obviously may be made in anydesired color, for example, blonde, red, brunette and black, to match,if desired, the color of the hair on the head of the doll.

A transversely spread group of lash strands 14 is led longitudinally oftheir lengths between a pair of guide rollers 16 from which they aredirected to a feed station 18.

Any suitable feeding arrangement can be employed which intermittentlyfeeds the flat group of lash strands a predetermined distance. One suchfeeding arrangement is shown herein, the same constituting a stationaryfeed block 2 0 and a feed roller 22, the latter optionally being madefrom a yieldable rubber so that it is able to frictionally engage thelash strands of the group and when the roller is turned in the directionindicated by the arrow A to advance said lash strands forwardly awayfrom the reel 12.

The lash strands 14 are adapted to be mounted on a dolls eyeball 24.This eyeball is of any conventional construction except for the lash,the finished arrangement of which subsequently will be described indetail. More particularly the eyeball is desirably fabricated from asynthetic plastic. The eyeball like all modern eyeballs is preferablymade by molding, e.g., injection molding. Typical materials employed forthe eyeball are cellulose acetate, cellulose acetate butyrate or anacrylic resin. The eyeball principally constitutes a hollowhemispherical shell and, for convenience in mounting providing that theeyeball is of a rotatable type, the same may include outwardly extendingopposed diametrically registered trunnions 26. Likewise if the eyeballis rotatable, it may include a rearwardly extending lower tail 28 aboutwhich a suitable weight (not here shown), such for instance as a stripof lead, may be wrapped to cause the eye to assume a certain angularidle position.

Prior to the lash folding and inserting operation which is performed bythe machine 10, the dolls eyeball 24 has had formed therein a slit 30 inthe upper half of the eyeball (above the lens). This slit either may bestraight across the eyeball as shown in the Grubman patcuts or, for amore pleasing appearance, it may be curved with its concave side facingthe lens as is customary in a more modern eyeball. The slit is formed byforcing a sharp thin cutting blade of the proper configuration into andthrough the eyeball and then withdrawing the same. Since the formationof the slit is no part of my invention I have not shown the apparatus orthe method step of carrying the same out this being illustrated anddescribed in the earlier of the two Grubman patents above mentioned. Itis merely necessary to observe that the preformed slit already ispresent when the eyeball is ready to receive a folded lash.

To hold the eyeball in proper position for securing the lash strands themachine includes a supporting member, i.e. a post 32, the upper surfaceof which is shaped to receive the rear surface, that is to say the backsurface, of the hemispherical dolls eyeball 24. The post holds theeyeball with the slit 30 facing upwardly. It may be noted in passingthat the back surface of the dolls eyeball has, in a present dayeyeball, a protuberant formation 34. Said formation is approximately inthe shape of a frustum of a cone and may be formed with reflecting ribs.The flat apex of the frustum will in the finished eye constitute thepupil P of the dolls eye and the sloping side walls of the formationwill constitute the iris I. The pupil and iris jointly make up a lens L.The post 32 is shaped to match the aforesaid configuration including theprotuberance and also includinga surface to match the tail 28. Theposition of the slit 30 at this time is indicated in FIG. 2.

The machine 10 has a lash cutting and a lash folding and insertingstation 36 one member of which is the post 32 that is located directlyforward of the front face of the feed block 20. The feed block is sooriented with respect to the post 32 that it will direct the flat(transversely spread) group of lash strands 14 in a generally flat planeacross the top of the eyeball, the direction of feed being such that thepreviously cut forward ends of the lash strands first cross the upperedge of the eyeball, then they are fed transversely across the slit andfinally they move over the lens L. In other words the direction ofmovement is from above to below the slit with the overfeed being belowthe slit. Furthermore the strands are centered with respect to the slitand are disposed close to the eyeball, being so directed by the feedroller and feed block that they will brush the eyeball (see FIG. 2) andbarely clear the slit.

Also included at the lash cutting and lash folding and inserting stationof the machine 10 are two blades. One of these is a sharp cutting blade38. The other is a thin dull folding and inserting blade 40. Both ofthese blades are carried by a vertically reciprocatable support 42. Theblades are so positioned on the support that the cutting blade 38 hasits rear face in vertical alignment with the front face of the feedblock 20 and the ,blade 40 is in vertical alignment with the slit 30.

It will be observed that the vertically moving blade 49 makes a smallerangle with the surface of the eyeball below the slit 30 than with thesurface of the eyeball above the slit.

The front face of the feed block 20 matches the plan shape of the rearface of the cutting blade 38 so that this front face can act as a shearmember to cooperate with the blade 38 to cut off the strands 14 whichproject over the front edge of the feed block at any time that thecutting blade 38 is lowered into cooperative engagement with the feedblock.

The thin dull folding blade 40 has a plan configuration and length whichmatch the shape and length of the slit 3t). Thereby since the blade 40is registered with the slit, as noted above, when the support 42 islowered the 6 blade 40 will enter into the slit. The blade 40 hasupwardly diverging front and back edges so that as the thin blade entersthe slit it will spread the walls of the same apart.

It will be appreciated, of course, that when the blade 40 is withdrawnfrom the slit the walls of the slit will tend to spring back towards oneanother because the eyeball 24 is made of a synthetic plastic and asynthetic plastic is inherently resilient so that it will tend to regainits original shape when slightly deformed and the deforming stress isreleased. Hence if anything is introduced into the preformed slit in itsspread state it will be clamped by the walls of the slit when thespreading means is withdrawn. This characteristic of the eyeball machineand method are detailed in the earlier of the aforesaid Grubman patentsand it is understood that the same does not constitute any feature ofnovelty in the present invention. Indeed it will be understood that themachine 10 is the same as the machine of said Grubman patent except forthe alteration in the shape of the post to accommodate a modern eyeballand except for the curvature of the dull folding blade 40 to match acurved shape of the slit 30 if such a curved slit is provided.

'The novelty of the present invention consists in the novel manner ofusing the aforesaid patented machine. In the conventional use of themachine after the support 42 is elevated the forward previously cut endof the group of lash strands 14 is at the forward face of the feed block20. Thereupon the feeding station is actuated as by turning the feedroller 22 to feed the group of lash strands forward over and past(below) the slit 30 by a distance which is in excess of double thedistance from the bight to the tip of a trimmed lash. The distance fromthe forward edge of the feed block 20 to the slit 30 is in excess of thedistance from the bight of a trimmed lash strand to the tip thereof.Thus the total feed of the lash strands heretofore has been such thatthe strands before folding and insertion into the slit extendedtransversely two (both) ways from the slit (above and below) for adistance that was in excess of the distance from the bight to the tip ofa trimmed lash. Subsequently by the previous method the las-h afterinsertion was trimmed to any desired length.

It will be appreciated that the insertion took place upon lowering ofthe support 42. As this occurred the tip of the thin dull blade 40 wouldpress a transverse segment of the group of lash strands into the slit 30folding each of the individual strands as it did so whereby to form abight B in each strand at the point of folding. These folded bightswould be pushed by the blade 49 into the preformed slit and at the sametime the blade 40 would spread apart the walls of the slit 30. Thefolded portions (bights B) of the lash strands would be pushed farenough into the slit, preferably at least until the bights cleared therear surface of the eyeball, for the walls of the slit to be able tohold the lash strands firmly in place after the folding blade waswithdrawn.

In accordance with the present method the foregoing operation of themachine is modified to shorten the feed of the transversely spread groupof lash strands 14 so that the overfeed, i.e., the feed of the free endsof the lash strands beyond (below) the slit and over the lens L in thedirection C is considerably less than the length from the bight to thetip of a reach of a trimmed lash strand. Preferably the overfeed isslightly in excess of the distance from the bight of an inserted lashstrand to the external surface of the eyeball. This arangement is shownquite clearly in FIG. 2, the overfeed being indicated by the portion ofthe strands 14 to the right of (below) the slit 30 and of the foldingand inserting blade 40. It will be seen that the overfeed thereby issufficiently long to permit the group of lash strands to be folded andinserted into the slit when the dull blade 40 is brought down asindicated in FIG. 3. Thereby when the dull blade is retracted from theslit it will leave caught between the walls of the slit all of the groupof lash strands 14 with each of the lash 7 strands having a foldedportion (bight) compressed between the walls of the slit and with thebight of the folded portion preferably located at the interior of theeye, i.e., rearwardly of the rear surface of the eye.

Due to the shortness of the overfeed, typically about threethirty-seconds of an inch, each lash strand will have extendingforwardly from the bight two reaches 44, 46 (FIG. 4) of unequal length.The length of the reach 44 equals the distance from the slit to theforward edge of the feed block and the length of the reach 46 equals theamount of overfeed beyond (below) the slit 30. The reach 46 thus isconsiderably shorter than the reach 44. The reach 44 preferably is inexcess of and at least equal to a length required to provide asufliciently long protruding section after the lash strands have beeninserted and the excess length, if any, has been trimmed away.

Since the trimming step already has been outlined in theearlier of theGrubman patents no further mention will be made of it here. However itis only the long reach 44 which is trimmed. The reach 46 is much shorterthan the trimmed length of the reach 44 so that it is not trimmed toform the finished lash.

In the finished lash as shown in FIG. 6 the reaches 44 1 of the severallash strands 14 will be seen to protrude only a short distance beyondthe external surface of the eye and they will not be noticeable unlessattention is directed to them. The predominant portion of the lash willconstitute the trimmed long reaches 44 which in number will only beone-half the number of visible lash strands that are obtained pursuantto the previously described Grubman method,'and by thus halving thenumber of reaches an appearance of sparseness is secured.

After the lashes have thus been clamped in place their securement may bemade additionally firm by application of an adhesive. This may beapplied through a slot 48 in the post 32. The upper end of the slot isnecessary for reception of the tip of the dull folding blade 40 wherebythe slot simply has to be extended downwardly to enable cementintermittently to be forced upwardly so as to be applied to the bightsof the folded lash strands.

Attention is directed to the relative locations of the long and shortreaches 44, 46. The long reaches are on top and the short reaches are onthe underside of the finished lash whereby the short reaches aresubstantially concealed by the long reaches. This mutual positioning isthe result of the direction of feed for the lash strands as mentionedabove. It is because the feed is over the lash toward the lens that theshort overfeed is on the bottom side of the slit whereby after foldingand insertion the short reaches will be lowermost and 011 the bottomside of the finished lash. Still further the short reaches tend to beless noticeable because they are located within the smaller anglebetween the lash and eyeball which angle is at the underside of thelash.

It also will be observed that the tips of the short reaches aresubstantially aligned across the finished lash (see FIG. 6) due to thefact that the tips of these reaches originally were cut off in astraight line at the block 20 and severing blade 38, that the lashstrands are fed uniformly and that the folding and inserting operationdoes not materially disturb such arrangement although it may curve theline.

It thus will be seen that -I have provided a method of making a lashwhich achieves the several objects of my invention, and which is welladapted to meet the conditions of practical use.

As various possible embodiments might be made of the above invention,and as various changes might be made in the embodiment above set forthit is to be understood that all matter herein described or shown in theaccompanying drawings is to be interpreted as illustrative and not in alimiting sense.

Having thus described my invention, I claim as new and desire to secureby Letters Patent:

1. A method of lashing a dolls eye that includes a hollow eyeball havinga slit preformed therein between the center of the eyeball and aperipheral portion of the eyeball, said method comprising (a) feeding agreat many lash strands from a source in a direction transversely acrossthe slit with the leading ends of the strands first crossing over saidperipheral portion and then over the slit and finally advancing towardthe center of the eyeball and with the lash strands spread lengthwise ofthe slit,

(b) halting the feed of the lash strands according to step (a) when theleading ends of the strands have advanced beyond the slit a distanceconsiderably less than the distance from the bight to the distal end ofa trimmed reach,

(c) then performing the step of pressing the lash strands intermediatetheir ends into the slit over the length of the slit (1) so as to foldthe lash strands and thereby form bights at the folds, from which bightsreaches extend,

(2) so as to insert the folded bights of the lash strands into the slit,and

(3) so as to clamp the reaches of each lash strand adjacent their bightsbetween the walls of the slit with at least one reach of each lashstrand protruding from the eyeball,

(d) cutting the lash strands from the source at a distance from the slitat least equal to the distance from the bight to the distal end of atrimmed reach, and

(e) trimming to a predetermined length the distal ends of the reacheswhich protrude from the eyeball in excess of such length,

(f)-whereby each lash strand has a long trimmed reach on the upper sideof the inserted lash and a short reach on the under side of the insertedlash.

2. A method as set forth in claim 1 wherein the distance the lashstrands are fed past the slit is approximately equal to the distancefrom the bight of the inserted lash to the external surface of theeyeball.

3. A method as set forth in claim 1 wherein the distance the lashstrands are fed past the slit is slightly more than the distance fromthe bight of the inserted lash to the external surface of the eyeball.

4. A method as set forth in claim 1' wherein enough lash strands areincluded to pack the slit and arrange the reaches within the slit inparallel relationship.

References Cited by the Examiner UNITED STATES PATENTS 1,569,480 1/ 1926Grubman. 1,782,818 11/1930 Grubman 46-165 2,007,807 7/1935 Lorenz et al46-165 2,869,497 1/1959 Lehner 113-426 X 2,896,373 7/1959 Cohn 46-1693,045,619 7/1962 Grillon et a1 113126 X a RICHARD C. PINKHAM, PrimaryExaminer.

DELBERT B. LOWE, Examiner.

C. B. PRICE, F. BARRY SHAY, Assistant Examiners.

UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE CERTIFICATE OF CORRECTION Patent No. 3 2 5659 7 Dated June 21 1966 Inventor(s) Harry ludney It is certified thaterror appears in the above-identified patent and that said LettersPatent are hereby corrected as shown below:

Column 7 line 23, "44" should read 46 Column 8, line 20, "bight" shouldread slit line 21 "trimmed reach" should read finished lash line 39,before "length" and after the comma insert to finish the lash Signed andsealed this 8th day of December 1970.

(SEAL) Attest I EDWARD M.FLETCHER,JR. WILLIAM E. SCHUYLER, JR. AttestingOfficer Commissioner of Patents Q u S GOVERNMUH PRINTING orrrcr I959 o566

1. A METHOD OF LASHING A DOLL''S EYE THAT INCLUDES A HOLLOW EYEBALLHAVING A SLIT PREFORMED THEREIN BETWEEN THE CENTER OF THE EYEBALL AND APERIPHERAL PORTION OF THE EYEBALL, SAID METHOD COMPRISING (A) FEEDING AGREAT MANY LASH STRANDS FROM A SOURCE IN A DIRECTION TRANSVERSELY ACROSSTHE SLIT WITH THE LEADING ENDS OF THE STRANDS FIRST CROSSING OVER SAIDPERIPHERAL PORTION AND THEN OVER THE SLIT AND FINALLY ADVANCING TOWARDTHE CENTER OF THE EYEBALL AND WITH THE LASH STRANDS SPREAD LENGTHWISE OFTHE SLIT, (B) HALTING THE FEED OF THE LASH STRANDS ACCORDING TO STEP (A)WHEN THE LEADING ENDS OF THE STRANDS HAVE ADVANCED BEYOND THE SLIT ADISTANCE CONSIDERABLY LESS THAN THE DISTANCE FROM THE BIGHT TO THEDISTAL END OF A TRIMMED REACH, (C) THEN PERFORMING THE STEP OF PRESSINGTHE LASH STRANDS INTERMEDIATE THEIR ENDS INTO THE SLIT OVER THE LENGTHOF THE SLIT (1) SO AS TO FOLD THE LASH STRANDS AND THEREBY FORM BIGHTSAT THE FOLDS, FROM WHICH BIGHTS REACHES EXTEND, (2) SO AS TO INSERT THEFOLDED BIGHTS OF THE LASH STRANDS INTO THE SLIT, AND (3) SO AS TO CLAMPTHE REACHES OF EACH LASH STRAND ADJACENT THEIR BIGHTS BETWEEN THE WALLSOF THE SLIT WITH AT LEAST ONE REACH OF EACH LASH STRAND PROTRUDING FROMTHE EYEBALL, (D) CUTTING THE LASH STRANDS FROM THE SOURCE AT A DISTANCEFROM THE SLIT AT LEAST EQUAL TO THE DISTANCE FROM THE BIGHT TO THEDISTAL END OF A TRIMMED REACH, AND (E) TRIMMING TO A PREDETERMINEDLENGTH THE DISTAL ENDS OF THE REACHES WHICH PROTRUDE FROM THE EYEBALL INEXCESS OF SUCH LENGTH, (F) WHEREBY EACH LASH STRAND HAS A LONG TRIMMEDREACH ON THE UPPER SIDE OF THE INSERTED LASH AND A SHORT REACH ON THEUNDER SIDE OF THE INSERTED LASH.